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Animal
'Animal '''is a crazy drummer, and performs with Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem. Animal's vocabulary is generally limited to guttural shouts and monosyllabic grunts, often repeating a few simple phrases. During performances, Animal is usually chained to the drum set, as his musical outbursts are extremely violent, such like when he says "BEAT DRUMS! BEAT DRUMS! the drums with his head. Animal first appeared in the 1975 pilot, ''The Muppet '' ''Show: Sex and Violence, chained up in a basement and was unable to perform with Electric Mayhem. He later became a main character on The Muppet Show, and his unrestrained style has made him popular with young people for decades. Animal thinks that drums are food when Kermit asks him if you preferred drums to food. Animal has a similar personality to Cookie Monster because they both act crazy. Also in A Muppet Family Christmas, Animal said "That's my kinda fella!" which means that they both act the same way. His mother LaVerne is also a drummer. Performance Animal has performed a number of solos on The Muppet Show, including "Wild Thing", and "Foggy Day". When drumming legend Buddy Rich appeared on The Muppet Show, one sequence featured a "drum battle" between Rich and Animal in homage to the legendary face-off album between Rich and his contemporary Gene Kupa. Although Animal battled Buddy Rich, in an earlier episode, episode 110, it was mentioned during an interview Kermit gave Animal that Buddy Rich was one of Animal's idols. Also during this interview, Animal revealed that he had been playing the drums for five years, which would mean that he's been playing the drums since 1971. Animal is probably the most popular member of the Electric Mayhem. He has certainly been included in more merchandise than the rest. He was also the only member of the Electric Mayhem to be included regularly on Muppet Babies. Characteristics Throughout his tenure on the show, Floyd seems to be the only person who can, at least partially, control Animal with a few simple commands suggesting dog training (such as "Sit!" or "Heel!"). Animal's bushy eyebrows and hair, his outrageous behavior, and his wild drumming style are the most common reasons people think The Who drummer Keith Moon was the inspiration for Animal's character. However, the original sketches for Animal contain no evidence to suggest Animal was based on Moon. In fact, many of Animal's physical attributes were supposedly based on Grammy Award-winning ' '''drummer Steve Mitchell, a friend of Jim Henson's. Animal is portrayed as an excellent drummer, playing with and/or against both Buddy Rich and Harry Belafonte in separate drum-offs on ''The Muppet Show as well as Questlove on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2011. He shows a talent for jazz in a television advert for the Renault Clio car with French footballer Thierry Henry. Animal has also run afoul of Muppet Show guests, such as the aforementioned scene with Buddy Rich. When he repeatedly interrupted Rita Moreno's rendition of Fever with loud drumming outbursts, she became annoyed and slammed his head between a pair of cymbals (to which Animal responded by saying "Uh, that's my kinda woman!", before passing out). In another episode, Animal became hostile toward Dudley Moore when Moore tried to replace the band with a programmable, music-playing robot. A common gag involves someone imparting a figure of speech to Animal: Animal turns to the audience, his eyes go wide and he goes berserk, taking the figure of speech literally. For example, Jim Nabors once spoke the traditional theatrical good luck wish, "Break a leg," whereupon Animal indulged him by trying to break Nabors' leg. Another gag would occasionally occur when the band plays a slow song: Animal will get about halfway through and then after announcing "Too slow!" launch into a faster paced version of the song. The band would usually comment that Animal lasted much longer than they thought he would. Animal has been depicted as a literal skirt-chaser. In The Muppets Take Manhattan, he chases a female co-ed out of the auditorium, chanting "Woo-maaaan!" after her. He also chases cars. Sometimes his wild and crazy appearance, attitude and antics are used as the source of a joke by way of a reversal of what the audience might expect from Animal, such as in this piece of dialog from The Great Muppet Caper. In the movie Muppets from Space, Animal meets his match in the form of a security guard played by Kathy Griffin—after chasing her down a hallway with his "Woo-man" call, he later comes running back around the corner, yelling "HELP HELP!" with Griffin calling after him about how they'll settle down, buy a house, and have children. Ty Pennington commented about the possibility of Animal having ADHD when the character appeared on an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Animal was the official mascot of the U.S. Ski Team during the 1998 Winter Olympics. He was also featured in one of eleven commemorative stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service. In 2010, Animal was featured in a viral video alongside power-pop band OK Go, where he challenged the band's drummer, Dan Konopka, to a staring contest. Animal ultimately wins and forces Dan to be his roadie for a year. Also featured in the video are actor and comedian Zach Galifianakis and radio host Ira Glass, as spectators. Animal is present in the 2011 film The Muppets, having gone into anger-management therapy since the Muppets broke up. He also made a special appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as a guest drummer with the Roots house band. Animal was featured on the #41 Target Dodge of Jimmy Spencer in the 2002 Tropicana 400 in an advertising campaign in which he and his fellow Muppets were featured on a select few race cars. Book appearances *''The Muppet Show Book'' (1978) *''The Comic Muppet Book'' (1979) *''Robin Hood'' (1980) *''The Muppets Go Camping'' (1981) *''Muppet Picnic Cookbook'' (1981) *''Two for the Show'' (1982) *''The Case of the Missing Mother'' (1983) *''The Muppets Take Manhattan (comic book)'' (1984) *''Jim Henson's Bedtime Stories'' (1991) *''The Phantom of the Muppet Theater'' (1991) *''Muppet Time'' (1996) *''Ask Kermit: All About the Human Body'' *''The Muppet Show Comic Book'' (2009) *''The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson'' (2009) *''Muppet Robin Hood'' issue #3 (2009) *''Muppet Robin Hood'' issue #4 (2009)